


Knocking on Heaven's door

by Jcapasso916



Series: Knocking on Heaven's door [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6348889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jcapasso916/pseuds/Jcapasso916
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean find out that Cas has been imprisoned in Heaven's jail and they are being hunted by the angels as accomplices to his crimes. Can they break him out of jail and hide him from those who seek vengeance? Perhaps with the help of an old friend/enemy/something they have a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very old story that I'm just now getting around to moving over from my fanfiction.net account. It was my first ever supernatural story and isn't very good so don't judge me too harshly lol.

Dean hadn’t seen Cas for weeks and he was getting worried, but he just figured that Cas was busy with heaven things. Ever since they got heaven reopened Cas was intent on working to rebuild it. Dean didn’t think it was a very good idea. He still wasn’t exactly welcome among the angels, but Dean could respect him for trying to fix it. He just wished that Cas would check in every once in a while, just so Dean knew he was OK. 

Sam thought Dean wasn’t hiding his worry for Cas very well. Whenever they had a down moment Dean kept looking towards the sky and pacing. Sam was actually getting worried too, but he had faith in Cas. So did Dean. They knew that Cas could get out of anything, and if he got in trouble he would go to the bunker and call them. 

This was the situation for quite a while, until the day Sam was mortally wounded on a hunt. “C’mon Sammy. Stay with me,” Dean said as he held his bloody jacket against the wound in his brother’s stomach. “Cas! Damnit Cas! We need you here!”

“Dean…” Sam choked out. “If he could come, he would have. You know that. Don’t blame him.”

“Don’t even think about it Sammy. I’m not letting you die here. There won’t be anything to blame anyone for.” Dean looked up again, “Cas please” he begged. When he looked back down Sam was unconscious. He considered for a moment an open prayer. It had ended badly last time he tried it, but circumstances were different now. And Sammy was already gone so if they weren’t going to help he wouldn’t actually care if they killed him. “Oh what the hell. Ok listen up all you Angels. This is Dean Winchester. We are at 1582 Jenkins Highway in the farmhouse. First person here to heal my brother gets a nice shiny prize.”

Dean heard a rustle of wings and suddenly they were somewhere else. By the time Dean recovered from the shock and stood up he saw a woman, or should he say angel judging by the light coming out of her hands where she was healing his brother. As his instincts kicked in he gave a quick look around for threats and found himself in a modest dining room. It wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either, and he couldn’t help but think that it didn’t seem like someplace an angel would hang out. It was surprisingly normal and lived in. He figured it must be her vessels house. 

Dean’s attention was drawn back to Sam at his sharp intake of breath as he sat up quickly. “What…Where are we?” He asked looking around confused.

Dean looked to the woman/angel, “That’s a very good question. What’s the big idea just zapping us away like that?”

She looked at him highly annoyed, “Do you have any idea how stupid that was? An open prayer with your location? The only reason you were still alive is because you are warded from them finding you, and now because I got you out of there before anyone else showed up. You could show a little gratitude. I didn’t even get my shiny prize” She said with a smirk.

“Wait what?” Dean asked.

“Who is after us? Angels? Why?” Sam added looking from Dean to the woman as if either one of them could shed some light on the situation.

Dean pulled out his angel blade figuring that this woman was an angel and had abducted them. They can’t be too careful. 

She laughed and snapped her fingers and the blade disappeared from his hand and appeared in hers. “Now now. You shouldn’t play with such things. You’ll get it back when you learn to behave. It’s not polite to threaten people in their own home.”

“Don’t you mean your vessels home?” Dean shot back at her. 

“No I don’t. I saw the angels fall. That’s when I started listening again. Not that they knew it. I never spoke, only listened. If they knew I was alive…well I don’t know what they would do, but I don’t want to find out.”

“You’re not exactly helping your case here lady,” Dean snarled still on alert. “You see I have friends among the angels, and if they want you dead there must be a pretty good reason.”

“No,” She barked at him, “You had one friend among the angels. Notice I said had. He has been locked away for crimes against the heaven and you both are wanted as his accomplices. I helped you because angels hunting humans is the lowest of the low. I can’t believe how far they have fallen, but you’re warded so they can’t find you. So just avoid any more open prayers and for the love of my father don’t broadcast your location in your prayers. So now that we are all caught up where you do you want me to send you? Preferably far away from where you were.”

“Wait a minute lady. You can’t just drop that on us and kick us out. Where is Cas and how do we get him out?” 

She looked at Dean surprised, “You don’t get him out. Heaven’s prison isn’t exactly the place for a jailbreak.”

“Look, we can’t just leave him there. He wouldn’t leave us,” Sam tried to reason with her.

Dean could tell by the look on her face that she was about to deny them again. “Let me put it this way. We are getting him out, with or without your help. We will find a way. If you know anything about us you know that we’ll do it.”

“How do you figure that? The places is warded completely. Not even archangels can step foot in the building and there is an entire garrison patrolling outside it. I’m not getting involved.”

“Well then we’ll just have to find ourselves an angel and tell them where you are then,” Dean went with the old standby of blackmail. 

She smirked at him, “By all means. Where are we?”

“We’re…well…um…” Dean looked around frantically and then looked down and with a sheepish shrug finished with, “at your house?” He looked back at her with a smile that was meant to be charming. 

She just snorted. “As amusing as this has been I have done my good deed for the day. Now tell me where you want to go or I will choose somewhere for you.”

“Wait. Please. Can’t you do anything to help us get Cas out? Just tell us how to find the jail even,” Sam pleaded with her.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, “You can only get there from within heaven and as humans you can only get to heaven if you die at which point you are stuck in your own heaven and can’t exactly move freely.”

Dean got a hard look on his face. “Then we die. We have a way to move around up there. We free Cas and we keep him hidden. Just tell us where to find the jail. That’s all we need.”

“You would die for his freedom?” She looked between them, “both of you?”

“Absolutely”

“Damn straight.”

She stared them both down for quite some time looking for any sign of doubt or uncertainty. When she didn’t find any her features began to change as she said, “Well well well, color me surprised. I didn’t realize you were that loyal to my little bro.”

“Gabriel!”


	2. Chapter 2

Sam and Dean were speechless for a moment. I mean how do you react to the person who killed your brother a thousand times and then died to save you both and help save the world. Talk about conflicting feelings. Sam found his voice first. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

Gabriel waved his hand dismissively, “Supposed to be is such a strong sentiment.”

Dean growled at him, “Ok how about how are you not dead and why would you leave us with that shitstorm if you weren’t.”

Gabriel put a hand over his heart and gasped mockingly, “Why deano. If I didn’t know any better I’d think you weren’t happy to see me. You should know by now. You can’t take the trick out of the trickster, and you didn’t really think I would kill my own brother did you? My way everyone lives, some better than others of course, but that really can’t be helped. It really was quite genius don’t you think?...”

Dean interrupted him livid, “Genius?! Sammy was stuck in the cage! Lost his soul!” 

Gabriel just ignored him and continued with his monologue, “but you kiddos just went above and beyond. I mean really. Michael and Lucifer both in the cage? Now maybe they can learn to get along finally.” 

Meanwhile, Dean is still yelling, “And Bobby and Cas died! And Adam is still stuck down there!”

Finally Sam can’t take it anymore. “BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!” Both of them stopped and turned to Sam. “We can keep going round and round on this for days, but in the end it happened. We can’t change the past. We need to be thinking about how to get Cas out, not rehashing shit that’s over and done with.” When Sam saw Deans sheepish look and Gabriel relaxed against the wall with his lollipop and raised his eyebrow, Sam continued. “Now. Gabriel. Will you help us save Cas?”

“What the hell do you muttonheads think I can do? Just walk in and get him killing everyone in my way? Yeah, not gonna happen.”

“You’re so worried about your brothers and sisters, what do you think is going to happen when we go in there? How many do you think we are going to have to kill to get to Cas? Because I don’t care. I will level all of heaven if I have to and you know it.”

“Dean’s right. I’m sure a trickster like you can be a big help in making sure we don’t have to kill anyone.” Sam decided to try to appeal to Gabriel’s ego and desire to protect his family. 

“Sorry buckos. You’re on your own with this one.” Gabriel snapped his fingers and Sam and Dean found themselves standing at the side of the road somewhere in Kansas near the bunker. It showed that Gabriel had been keeping an eye on them at least. They weren’t sure if Gabriel intentionally left them away from the bunker or if he just knew the general area and didn’t know where exactly the bunker was, but Dean decided he was going to assume he was being intentionally annoying. 

“And where’s my car you jackass!” Dean yelled and then scrambled out of the way before the car fell on his head. Dean cringed at the sound the car made when it landed. It didn’t sound like anything broke thankfully, but it still couldn’t be good for her.

Sam and Dean drove the last few miles to the bunker, with Dean being paranoid the entire time about phantom noises his baby might be making. “So what now?” Dean asked rather helplessly.

“I guess we hit the books and see if they say anything about getting to heaven and how to find the jail.”

“You really think the men of letters have information about breaking into heaven’s jail?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“Probably not, but we have to start somewhere,” Sam shrugged. 

After a few hours of dead ends Dean remembered something. “You remember when we got that psychic to contact Bobby to let Cas into heaven?” at Sam’s nod Dean continued. “What if we contact Ash and see if he has any info on the jail and how we get there? He got us to the garden after all.”

“I would guess that the jail is guarded a little more than the garden, but it’s worth a shot.”

 

Ash was hanging out in Harvelle’s messing with his computer system when a voice came over the jukebox, “Ash are you there? Can you hear us?”

“Sam?”

“Ok Ash we don’t have much time. Do you know where heaven’s jail is and if we can get to you can you get us there?” Dean cut in. 

“What the hell man? Are you nuts? I don’t know where it is and I don’t want to know. What little I’ve heard about it makes hell look like a picnic in the park. Why would you want to go there?”

The jukebox started cursing fluently before he heard, “Dean, go take a walk. I got this.” There was a brief pause before, “Cas is locked up there Ash.” Sam told him, knowing that with Ash’s propensity to find friends as soon as they arrive that he would know all about Cas and what he means to the Winchesters, but especially to Dean. 

“Well shit.” Ash hit a few keys on his keyboard. “I’ll see what I can find out and spread the word to the rest of the crew up here and see if they have any more information. Can you get back to me in a few days?” 

“We’ll find a way.” Sam said relieved. “And thanks Ash.”

“Sure, sure,” Ash said as he waved off the gratitude from the jukebox. 

 

A few days later before they were about to go find another psychic since the first one disappeared; he apparently wanted nothing to do with a heavenly jailbreak either; Sam and Dean were discussing the best way to get to heaven (i.e. the best way to kill themselves) when the door from the garage opened and in walked Gabriel looking for all the world like he belonged there. He just smirked at the looks of the brothers as they both had guns pointed at him, obviously not used to visitors just dropping by at their SECRET bunker. “Miss me?” Gabriel asked as he snapped his fingers and turned both guns into licorice. 

“What the fuck do you want?” Dean spat at him. 

“Well I was going to offer some assistance to any crappy plan you two happen to come up with, but if you don’t want my help…” Gabriel trailed off as he turned to walk back towards the garage. Now that he knew where they were I could have easily flew off, but he was waiting for something and he didn’t have to wait long. He was surprised that it came from Dean though.

“Wait.” Gabriel turned around and raised an eyebrow at Dean and crossed his arms, clearly waiting for something. Dean grit his teeth and hissed out, “I’m sorry.”

Gabriel instantly relaxed and flew over and landed in a chair with his feet up on the long conference table knocking a few books to the side. “That’s better. So what’s the plan?”

“First how did you find us?” Dean asked not exactly politely. 

Sam worried that Gabriel would get offended and leave jumped in with, “He means that we don’t want any other angels to find us so if we knew how you did then we could fix it before they do.”

“Not to worry Samsquatch, I highly doubt any other angels have the skills or knowledge of my secure network connection to the tracking device I have planted in your car.” Gabriel said with a pop of the lollipop he was sucking on. 

Sam had his hand over Dean’s mouth before Gabriel even finished speaking, but the fire in Dean’s eyes said more than enough. Messing with his car was the lowest of the low in his book, but he realized they had bigger fish to fry so looked to Sam and nodded so Sam removed his hand. 

“So out of curiousity, I’m sure you could come up with a much better plan than we could. I mean you know heaven much better than we do.” Sam asked the amused archangel.

“Actually I couldn’t. I have no idea what to do. I can’t get into the prison. It’s possible that you could, given that it is warded against any angels that don’t have the guard’s mark, which cannot be faked or transferred in any way, by the way, nor can any of the guards be bribed or turned, but the problem would be getting you there. I could get you into heaven but once we are there I can’t fly with you and we can’t appear anywhere near the prison. It would take years, maybe even decades of walking to get to the prison from anywhere we could appear, and the same for coming back, not to mention I seriously doubt Cassie will be in any shape to walk on his own so that will slow us down considerably.” Gabriel shrugged. 

“Well how do other angels get to the prison then? Like the ones patrolling and the guards?” Sam asked.

“They fly from another point in heaven. Angels can fly there, just not from outside heaven, and angels can’t fly in heaven with other souls. Probably to keep angels like me from mixing up people’s heaven’s for amusement.” Gabriel snickered

“I’m guessing you tried then.” Dean half asked. “Right stupid question. Anyway, so if I understand correctly the biggest issue we face is moving around quickly up there correct?” At the nod from Gabriel, “And if we knew someone who could create shortcuts between places, and get us from one side of heaven to another in a short period of time?”

Sam got a big grin on his face. “Dean that’s perfect, between Gabriel and Ash we might actually have a shot at this!”

The Winchester’s didn’t often get to see Gabriel confused, in fact they had never seen Gabriel confused, but they both found it incredibly amusing and if they hadn’t been in a time crunch they would have reveled in it a little longer, but ended up telling him about Ash and his shortcuts, visiting with people from other heavens, and his super computer system. Gabriel was predictably excited. “That’s amazing! I have got to meet him. Oh the fun we could have….” Sam and Dean tuned out Gabriel at this point realizing that when he started acting like a puppy on a sugar high they wouldn’t get anything useful out of him, and started on the new hard part of the plan. Getting Cas out past the dozens of angels once they got there. 

Apparently Gabriel had calmed down at some point during their conversation because he suddenly interrupted them. “Whoa now. Slow down there kiddos. What happened to preventing deaths? If I remember correctly that was one of the things you used to try to sell me on helping you.”

“Well what do you suggest then?” Dean snarked at him. 

“Hellooo. Trickster? Remember? I can get them away.”

“Ok you do what you can, but if we have to fight we do it to kill. You save as many as you can, and we will kill as few as we can. How’s that?” Sam asked knowing that they probably wouldn’t be able to get all of the garrison to abandon their posts at once. If there was one thing angels were it was sticklers for the rules. 

“Sure sure,” Gabriel waved them off satisfied. He would save as many as he can, but if he had to choose between one of his only decent brothers and a few of the pricks it was really no contest, which was the only reason he was here. The only other brothers he was ever close with were all gone now anyway. “You kids go get some beauty sleep. You really need it. We will leave in the morning and get your buddy Ashtray and get everything taken care of.”

As Sam and Dean got up to head to their rooms, it was very late after all, Dean turned back to Gabriel and said, “I expect everything in this place to be exactly the way we left it when we wake up. I mean it Gabriel.”

“Why Deano, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you didn’t trust me,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

Sam sighed. Keeping these two from fighting was going to be the hardest part of this entire thing he thought. “Please Gabriel?” Sam asked tiredly. 

“Yeah whatever, maybe I’ll go find a few people to play with.” At Sam’s look he added, “other people,” another look, “that I won’t kill” he crossed his heart. When Sam continued looking at him he said, “That’s the best you’re going to get Samsquatch.” 

Sam sighed again. “Fine” he said resignedly rubbing his head as if he had a migraine coming on, which he probably did given that Gabriel was so good at causing them.


	3. Chapter 3

Around 10 AM the next morning there were two new bullet holes in the wall in Dean’s room and Sam was standing next to his bed machete in hand, as the sound of the bullhorn Gabriel used to wake them faded away. 

Dean comes running into the kitchen, gun still in hand, even though he knew as soon as he was actually awake that it was Gabriel and that as liberating as it may feel shooting him would neither hurt him nor is shooting someone that is helping you rescue your best friend a particularly good idea, but at least keeping the gun in hand made him feel a little better. “What the FUCK…” He trailed off as he stepped into the kitchen to find a smorgasbord of the best breakfast foods known to man. Pancakes (chocolate chip of course), bacon, waffles, sausage, and…would you look at that? Even a pie. 

“Eat up buckos. You need your strength for this.” Gabriel added as Sam came in with murder in his eye and like Dean softened as he saw the breakfast spread. 

Of course after cataloguing the food he looked to Gabriel and said a bit petulantly, “I don’t suppose you could snap up some fruit or something at least halfway healthy for me after that very rude awakening.”

Gabriel sighed like it was a huge imposition. “Ok fine,” He said snapping his fingers and making a fruit spread appear on Sam’s half of the table, “Don’t know why you would want to eat that junk with all this good stuff here.” 

“Sammy has no appreciation for good food,” Dean said barely understandable around all the food in his mouth. 

Once they all finished eating, and Gabriel and Dean nearly came to blows over the pie before Sam reminded Gabriel that he could just snap his fingers and create another one, to which Gabriel replied that wasn’t the point, they all sat back as Gabriel snapped his fingers and cleaned up the mess. 

“Ok so. While you were catching some Zs I was catching up with your buddy ashtray up in heaven. Very strange kid that Ashtray, even for a human, but we got some things set up and I helped him work out some details so we are all set to go whenever you’re ready.”

“It’s a good thing I stocked up on Exlax,” Dean muttered as he tensed up and nodded his readiness. Sam just rolled his eyes and nodded too as Gabriel slapped a hand on each of their shoulders and they appeared in Harvelle’s heaven franchise. 

 

Sam and Dean’s jaws dropped as they looked around at what waited for them. Bobby, John, Rufus, Ellen, and Jo were all there with angel blades in hand looking ready to kick some ass while Mary fussed over John and Pamela was working with Ash on something at the computers. No sooner than they took in the scene there was a shriek, “Oh My Babies!” and Sam and Dean were hit with the little blonde missile that was Mary Winchester. They both froze for a moment before they each slowly wrapped an arm around their mother. “I am so proud of you both.” She said sniffling.

“So am I,” John said walking up and putting a hand on each of their shoulders. Sam and Dean were refusing to cry in front of this many people, all of whom were trying not to notice that they were failing, before Gabriel in a rare show of emotional maturity shooed everyone out but for the reunited family.

Sam stepped back a bit and looked down at the ground. “There’s nothing to be proud of. I…”

“Bullshit Sammy,” Dean cut in angrily. 

“Watch your mouth,” His mother warned and then turned to Sam. “You’re brother’s right. You always did the best you could with the knowledge you had at the time. And more importantly your heart was always in the right place. You have accomplished some incredible things. That goes for both of you. Your father and I couldn’t be prouder of the men you turned out to be.” 

Neither of them had ever realized how much they needed to hear that from their parents. Mary waited until she saw them accept what she had said and then got a hard tone in her voice. “Now let’s go save your angel.” Both boys looked at her in shock. “Don’t look at me like that. I was raised a hunter too. I’m not some helpless little damsel in distress and if you think I’m going to stand by and watch my whole family go fight without watching their backs you’re crazy.” 

They looked to their father who raised his hands and backed away. “I already lost this argument. It’s your turn now.”

Seeing the death glare on their mother’s face they looked at each other and shrugged. “Ok lets get this show on the road.” Dean yelled so that the people who went outside would know to come back in. 

“How did you all get angel blades?” Sam asked. 

Everyone looked at Gabriel. “I might have made a sneak armory run,” he shrugged. 

There was a bit of argument about who was going to take point. Of course Sam and Dean wanted to, given their propensity to protect others, but everyone else was arguing against it since they were the only ones who were actually alive and thus could die. In the end it was agreed and Bobby, John, and Rufus would take point and Sam and Dean only agreed because they were told that their main job was to get in and get Cas out so they couldn’t afford to get embroiled in the fight outside, especially since they would likely have their own fight with the guards inside. 

 

Gabriel, as the only one who could fly there went to get into position and Sam was to pray to him when they were there and ready. Ash did his thing with the computer and the door and the group headed out moving quickly and deliberately. Since no one was actively looking for them up there, it was unlikely that they would get caught, but there was no point in being reckless.

It took nearly an hour before the prison was in sight. They hid in the trees which ended about a quarter mile away from the building, leaving a great deal of open ground to cover, but that couldn’t be helped. 

Sam whispered, “Gabriel we’re ready.”

All of a sudden the nearly 50 angels around the building were joined by 50 more. One from each group stepped forward and spoke for a moment before the first 50 angels disappeared with the rustling of wings. 

Gabriel appeared next to them. “Ok get going, but be quick. I’m not entirely sure if they were all fooled by my illusions.” 

The group set off at a quick jog across the open field. Just as they reached the doors 10 more angels appeared. Apparently they sent someone to check up on things. They were surprised though to find the human souls storming the prison and in their surprise two of them fell immediately, and the other 7 found themselves in heavy combat. Sam and Dean were fighting with them until Mary grabbed their shoulders and gave them a push towards the doors which were clear. “Go!”

They looked at each other and nodded and made a break for the doors.

 

Gabriel stayed in the treeline watching as the group made the run for the prison. He had done all he could without pinning a big neon sign that said Gabriel was here. He saw them approaching the doors and began to hope that it would go off without a hitch, but as soon as he felt that hope blossom a group from the last garrison returned. He saw two of his brothers cut down immediately and leaned his forehead against the tree forcing the breaths to come and willing the tears away. He turned his back on the fighting and sunk to the ground leaning back against the tree. He could have left, but he still had to get the Winchesters and Cassie back to earth so the only place he could go was back to Harvelles. He preferred waiting here to having to deal with the 20 questions from Ashtray and Psychic girl if he went back. 

 

Dean hit the door first and barreled through. The sight that met him froze him in place for a split second. When Sam ran into his back it jolted him back into movement. Luckily their surprise entrance shocked the angels standing there for a moment as well. Cas’ yell of “Dean! Run!” galvanized everyone into movement.

Dean saw red. He fought like a man possessed. Seeing Cas hung on that rack so very much like the one that held him in hell, with an angel on either side of him tearing him apart, nearly broke something inside of the righteous man. 

While Dean charged the two angels who were torturing Cas, Sam tackled the one that was running for Deans back. By the time Sam had dispatched his angel the other two were in multiple pieces and quite dead and Dean was bleeding from a large gash in his shoulder. Dean was working with shaky hands trying to unravel Cas from the rack without doing any more damage. Sam stepped over and with a quick squeeze to Dean’s shoulder started from the other side. It seemed like it took forever but they finally got him free only to realize that he had not made a single sound or moved a muscle the entire time.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam leaned over to pick Cas up only to find himself bumped out of the way by Dean. “I got him,” The older hunter said, his voice breaking. 

“Dean, your shoulder…” Sam began in as soothing a voice as he could manage.

“I said I got him!” Dean said nearly yelling. Sam knew better than to argue further and watched helplessly as Dean put his bad arm underneath Cas’ legs and supported his back under his other arm and lifted him gently so that Cas’ head was resting on his shoulder. “Lets get out of here Sammy.” Dean said, no longer trying to hide the tears. 

 

They reached the outside only to find that someone must have called for reinforcements. There was a pile of dead angels, but the fighting was still going strong. Dean didn’t even look. He just kept walking towards the trees without a word. Sam stopped for a moment looking between his brother, who was currently helpless because God knew he wasn’t letting go of Cas for anything, and the rest of his family who was currently fighting for their lives, before Bobby, noticing his predicament, yelled to him “Go on you idjit!” 

Sam nodded and with one last look at the fight still going in front of the doors took off after his brother intent on protecting him from anything and everything that might threaten them. They were almost to the tree line when two angels appeared in front of them. Sam managed to take one out, but the other had him pinned a moment later. Dean’s cry of “Sammy no!” caught the attention of the despondent archangel a few feet away. 

Gabriel’s head snapped up and seeing Sam on the ground with an angel standing over him with a glowing hand a split second from smiting the younger Winchester, he acted without thinking, grabbing the other angel’s head and killing him immediately. 

Sam and Dean both looked at Gabriel in shock. After all that about not wanting any of his brothers or sisters to be killed, he killed a brother with his bare hands. To save Sam. 

Gabriel seemed to be in shock as much as the brothers were. He looked at his hand as if he had never seen such a thing before and then looked at his fallen brother. Finally he looked up to Sam and raked his eyes over him checking for injury. Satisfied he turned to Dean and saw his little brother in Dean’s arms and was over there so quick he must have flown even though it was only a few steps away. He placed a hand on Castiel’s forehead and another on his chest and as the glow got brighter, Dean squeezed his eyes closed. Being that close was a bit much but he still wouldn’t let go of Cas. 

Once Cas’ body looked whole again, Gabriel laid a hand on Dean’s bad shoulder. It only took a moment to heal the minor injury and then Gabriel spoke for the first time since everything went to hell. “Let’s get back to the bar and get you guys home.”

“What about them?” Sam asked gesturing wildly across the field at the fighting still going on. 

“They are souls in heaven. When they fall in battle they awaken good as new in their respective heavens and make their way back to Harvelles. As soon as we are away safely I will give them the signal and they will fall. This was all prearranged.”

Sam seemed to struggle with that for a moment. It went against his very nature to walk away from such things, but logically they would be fine. He still needed a little reassurance. “They won’t be harmed at all? You’re sure?

“Positive. Souls of heaven are protected from any harm, including from angels. That’s why they were hunting you on earth instead of just waiting for you to die and snatching you up when you got here.”

Sam forced himself then to walk away putting a hand on Dean’s shoulder and steering him in the direction they needed to go. Gabriel went back to staring at his hand.

“Why isn’t he waking up?” Dean almost whispered a few minutes later.

“I healed his body, but his grace is severely damaged. That will take time to heal.”

“How long…”

“I don’t know.”

Sam walked behind the both of them on full alert. They both seemed to be in shock and he was the only one capable of fighting at the moment, and that made him nervous. Once they could see Harvelles in the distance Gabriel stopped. “We are far enough now that I can return you home. Unless you would rather go in first?” 

Sam shook his head. There was no point. They couldn’t stay here much longer anyway. They were to vulnerable, and it’s not like Dean was in any shape to see anyone. Gabriel nodded and put a hand on each of their shoulders and they found themselves in Dean’s room in the bunker. Dean finally set Cas down gently on his bed and Sam pulled the chair over to the bed as Dean sat down. 

“I need to go. End the fight and let everyone know we were successful,” Gabriel said.

Sam was getting nervous. He had never seen Gabriel so subdued. Even fighting Lucifer, but then again, he knew then that no one would be hurt. It was a distraction. This was real. But still. This wasn’t Gabriel and he couldn’t help but be concerned. “Will you come back?”

Gabriel just nodded and disappeared. 

 

Sam walked into the kitchen, not sure what do with himself at that moment. He had a broken brother and a broken angel in the other room and another broken angel mopping up their mess that would be back any minute and he didn’t know how to fix any of it. He decided to hit the old standby. If ever there were a time for a bit of hunter’s helper it would be now. Sam had just downed a double shot when Gabriel reappeared. 

Sam poured another double shot and held the glass out to Gabriel, never dreaming that he would actually take it. After downing the shot Gabriel turned away and wiped at his eyes, trying to hide the traitorous tears. Sam saw though and did the only thing he could think to do. He reached out and put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder and said as softly and sincerely as he could, “Thank you. For saving my life.”

As Gabriel turned slowly Sam very tentatively reached out to initiate a hug, not sure if he was doing the right thing or not. It was rather awkward for a moment, until it seemed to open the floodgates for Gabriel and he began to sob on Sam’s shoulder. Sam led him over to the couch and sat down with him so they would be more comfortable. 

The ideal way out of this would be for Gabriel to cry himself to sleep and then Sam could gently extricate himself from the situation and they would both forget it ever happened, but Sam suddenly realized that Gabriel probably wouldn’t cry himself to sleep. He had never seen an angel sleep unless they were seriously injured and that was more like unconsciousness than sleep, so Sam resigned himself to the awkwardness following this moment and felt that the least he could do is deal with the fallout after the archangel killed his own brother to save Sam’s life. 

It took about an hour for Gabriel’s sobs to become sniffles and a few more minutes before Gabriel sat up without a word and walked into the kitchen were there were two pies already sitting on the counter. Gabriel pulled one to himself and gestured to Sam to take the other one to Dean. 

 

Sam walked into Dean’s room to find that Dean hadn’t moved from his silent vigil. Sam held out the pie to Dean along with a fork, knowing from long experience that when his brother gets like this words are not his friend. Dean took them and nodded his thanks and Sam let himself out. 

After Sam closed the door behind him he leaned against the wall and sighed. This was going to be exhausting. He had enough experience putting his brother back together after something like this, but add the archangel to the mix and there was no telling what kind of shape Cas was going to be in when he woke up, because he would wake up. Sam refused to consider any alternative. And then Dean’s condition would be dependent on Cas’ condition. Sam didn’t even know where to begin with Gabriel though. He didn’t know him well enough to know what he needed or how to fix him.


	5. Chapter 5

Sam walked back out to the living room to find Gabriel sitting there on the couch with a huge piece of chocolate cake. He had apparently moved on from pie. Sam almost made a comment about getting food on the couch but caught himself in time. Gabriel needed comfort food, and it’s not like he couldn’t just snap his fingers and clean it up if he made a mess. The worrying part was that he was eating it slowly, very uncharacteristic, and looking at nothing in complete silence, also uncharacteristic. In fact before today Sam couldn’t think of any time there had been silence around Gabriel. Gabriel was noise and laughter, and quite a bit of yelling usually too; it’s like that was what he was made for. This silence and melancholy that could be so comfortable with Dean made him feel like he was drowning. He had to make it stop.

He sat next to Gabriel and said softly, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Gabriel snapped his head to look at Sam and Sam wasn’t sure if the fire in his eyes was a good thing that he was feeling something again, or a bad thing that was going to get worse very quickly, or maybe both. Sam stayed still and silent waiting for some cue as to what to do next afraid that any sound or movement might set him off like a skittish animal. 

“Talk?” Gabriel scoffed, “What’s to talk about? How I just killed my brother with my bare hands; my brother who was older than time itself and all to save the life of a human who won’t live more than a few more decades anyway?” He was yelling by this point but then his voice dropped to a normal volume again. “And I can’t even be mad at you for it because everything was to protect another brother. One of the best of us all, and seeing what they did to him, and how they nearly destroyed him and how we were almost too late, and I didn’t even know that when I killed him. All I saw was you about to die and I couldn’t let that happen and I don’t even know why and I don’t know what I should be feeling right now and this is why I wanted to stay away from my family, away from all of this. It gets too complicated and I have to choose sides but now I’ve chosen and how many of my brothers died today, and I don’t even know how sorry I am after seeing Cassie.” His head was in his hands by this point and he paused for a moment. Sam opened his mouth to speak not even knowing what to say what he could possibly say, but then Gabriel stood up and looked to heaven and yelled, “I’m an angel for crying out loud. I’m not supposed to feel things like this.” He dropped back down. “I’m not supposed to feel.” He said defeated. 

“I know I can’t begin to imagine what you are going through right now, but I also feel more than most people, and you’re right. It can be a curse, and at times like this you wish you could just rip out any scrap of emotion you have, but…and I don’t expect you to see it right now…it can also be a blessing. I don’t know if it will help you to know that it will be better eventually even though it doesn’t seem like it right now, but that’s something that you can hold onto. For everything that you feel right now, you also have the ability to experience joy and laughter, love, beauty, and you will get that back.”

“I should go,” Gabriel said suddenly. 

“Wait,” Sam said quickly knowing how quickly Gabriel could disappear. 

“I understand if you can’t be around me right now after what happened, but you shouldn’t be alone. Is there anyone...” Sam trailed off not even sure how to finish, but sure that he got his point across. 

“I don’t need your pity. Forget that I saved your life ok? Just forget it. You don’t owe me anything so stop pretending you care. I know you don’t like me. I knew that before I even started this so save it for someone who might believe it,” Gabriel spat heatedly. 

Sam grabbed Gabriel by the shoulders trying by sheer force of will to keep him from fluttering off. “I never said I don’t like you. Yes we got off on the wrong foot, but just because I tried to kill you a few times doesn’t mean I don’t like you,” Sam said with a smile trying to get some kind of smile out of Gabriel. It didn’t totally work, but Gabriel did snort in amusement and given the circumstances Sam chalked that up as a win and continued, “Honestly I don’t know if I like you, but I know I don’t not like you if that makes sense. You’re very confusing, but all that aside, I do care. And not just because you saved my life, or helped us saved Cas, or protected us in that hotel, but because I just do. If you still want to go you can, but don’t go thinking that I don’t want you here, only if you want to go.” 

Gabriel looked at Sam with an unreadable expression, “You say I’m confusing?” Sam tried not to laugh. He really did. But the look on Gabriel’s face was just too good. He lost the battle, but didn’t mind too much when Gabriel let out a little laugh with him. 

“I’ll be right back,” Sam said and disappeared to his room for a moment and came back with his hands behind his back. “I need to get some sleep, but I hope you stay. You should take some time and relax tonight and so I have this for you to watch,” He pulled the box set of the three stooges dvds from behind his back and presented them to Gabriel. He was wary of giving the trickster archangel too many ideas, but he resolved that with the certainty that in all his years he had seen the three stooges before. Obviously Gabriel could just conjure up his own dvds if he wanted to watch something, but Sam was worried that he might end up watching sad stuff, so he wanted to make sure Gabriel had another option. 

Gabriel gave Sam a half smile and a thank you and Sam smiled back at him and went to bed, but not before taking a blanket and pillow to Dean. Those large wingback chairs could be comfortable to sit in, but sleeping in one all night, which Sam was positive that Dean would be doing, could be hazardous, and the bunker did run a bit on the cold side, especially at night. When Sam went into Dean’s room he was already sleeping so Sam covered him up and slid the pillow under his head so that his neck would have some support and made his way back to his own room to crash for the night, smiling as he heard the three stooges playing as he walked down the hall. 

 

Sam was almost disappointed to wake up normally the next morning. That meant that Gabriel had either left, or was still feeling down, but then decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. There’s no telling what Dean would do being woken up like that after yesterday. 

Needless to say Sam was surprised to walk into the kitchen to find a smiling Gabriel sitting at the table munching on some kind of pastries that looked like they could put a normal human into a sugar coma, with a smile on his face. He was even more surprised that there was also a fruit spread and a large bowl of oatmeal at his normal seat. Sam smiled as he sat down, “Thanks Gabe,” he said as he dug in. He was a few bites in before he noticed that Gabriel was looking at him strangely. “What?” He asked confused.

“You called me Gabe,” He said.

“I did?” Gabriel nodded. “Sorry. I don’t have to…”

“No,” Gabriel interrupted. “I like it. It’s just…no one’s ever given me a nickname before,” he said sheepishly. 

“Really? You give everyone nicknames, even people you’ve never met, but no one has ever given you one back?” Sam asked astonished. “Not even your brothers?”

“Nope, no one. It’s funny how it makes one feel almost….I don’t know…accepted.” Gabriel shrugged. 

“You are accepted Gabe. Not sure how Dean’s going to feel about that once he’s back to himself though,” Sam laughed. 

“Oh that will be a fun conversation,” Gabriel laughed with him. 

They finished breakfast more lighthearted than they began it and then Gabriel handed Sam another pie for Dean. “He needs more than just pie. It’s not healthy to eat only pie,” He said as if speaking to a small child.

“Right now, he’s hurting. He needs comfort food. Pie is his comfort food. Unless he asks for something else he’s getting pie. Unless of course you feel like going to get something else in which case I’ll just give him the pie while you’re gone.” Gabriel smirked as he watched Sam’s face try to figure out a way to win this one before he huffed and took the pie and a fork to Dean. 

“You win this time, but don’t get used to it,” Sam told him shaking the fork at him before he left the room. 

 

Sam opened the door to Dean’s room slowly, not wanting to get shot if he startled Dean awake in his mental state. Dean was already awake though, just watching Cas, who hadn’t moved from when he was laid down. Sam was silently grateful to Gabriel for healing Cas’ body. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like seeing Cas like that as he healed. Seeing him like that once was bad enough. It sure seemed to have broken his brother. 

Sam, once again feeling like he was approaching a skittish animal, held out the pie and Dean took it and the fork with just a nod of thanks again. Sam hesitated for a moment not sure if Dean would appreciate it if he sat with them, but finally decided to hell with it. Cas was his friend too, and if he wanted to sit vigil at his bedside he could damn well do it. Sam pulled up another chair from the other side of the bed so he could see both Dean and Cas. 

He worried about Gabriel for a moment but then decided that Gabriel was bouncing back, and if he needed him he knew where he was. It was about an hour later that Gabriel came and stood in the doorway for a moment until he caught Sam’s eye. Sam glanced back at Dean unsure how he would feel about having the archangel around, but in the end decided that it shouldn’t be Dean’s decision anyway. Gabriel was his brother and had risked a lot and been through a lot to save him. He had just as much right to be here as Dean so he would just have to deal. Sam jerked his head inviting Gabriel in. 

Gabriel stepped forward standing next to Sam, because really there was no reason to tempt fate by getting to close to Dean. He reached out towards Cas but stopped when Dean started to stand looking angry. “I just want to see if I can help,” Gabriel said trying to placate angry mama bear, not that he would ever say that to Dean’s face. At least not now. Dean nodded and sat back down warily watching him like a hawk. There was a slight blue glow from Gabriel’s hands that seemed to last for a long time, before he let out a sad sigh. “There’s nothing more I can do. It’s up to him now. He is out of danger though. He won’t die for sure. He should wake up, but I can’t be certain.”

“Is there anything else we can do to help him?” Dean asked hopefully because damnit doing anything at all would be preferable to sitting here helpless watching his best friend in a coma. 

Gabriel thought for a moment and shrugged, “Talk to him maybe? I mean I don’t know how aware he is in there, but if his subconscious thinks he’s just going to wake up back in that place it might be keeping him out to protect him. Maybe if he knows he’s among family, and safe, it might help? And maybe…” Gabriel trailed off not sure if he should say what he was thinking.

“What is it Gabe?” He tried to coax it out of him. 

“Well I can’t help but think what he will feel like if he wakes up and sees Dean in this condition,” He looked at Dean who looked like he was working up to a temper, so he talked quickly to try to head it off, “It’s just that we all know that he’s as protective of you as you are of him, so how would you feel if you were hurt and found that he hadn’t been taking care of himself because he was so worried over you? You know how Cassie is. He always thinks that everything is his fault, even though it’s not, I just don’t think he should wake up to that.”

“I’m not leaving him alone. I need to be here when he wakes up.”

“What if we make sure he’s never alone and if he shows any sign of waking up we will make sure to get you no matter what? I’m glad you changed out of those bloody clothes, but you still need to shower, shave, eat a real meal that’s not pie…shut up Gabe…and get some real sleep. Someone will always be here,” Sam was thankful that Gabe brought this up, especially that he did it in a manner of what’s best for Cas, because God knows that’s the only way to get Dean to do anything right now. 

“How about this,” Gabe snapped his fingers and Deans large bed separated into two twin beds, one with Cas and the other about a foot away, “now you have your own bed, still in the room and close enough to reach out and touch him if you feel the need for reassurance. I can take my shift while you are sleeping, since I’m not sure how comforting he will find my presence given that our last face to face encounter didn’t go very well, but I will still be able to wake you when you are needed.” 

Sam winced. That wouldn’t go over very well with Dean. He hated the idea of angels watching him sleep, but Dean surprised him. “You won’t be watching me sleep though will you?” 

Gabriel looked confused, “Why would I do that?” 

Dean cleared his throat, “Um…no reason…just asking.” Sam’s quiet snickering clued him in that he was missing something but he could ask later. 

“So are we agreed?” Gabriel asked. When Dean nodded, Gabriel sighed with relief. “Good then go take a shower Deano. You stink.”

Knowing how petulant and pointless it was didn’t stop Dean from throwing a book at Gabriel as he left the room.


	6. Chapter 6

When Dean left, Sam turned to Gabriel, “How the hell did you do that?” Sam asked Gabriel like he just created the 8th wonder of the world. “I know Dean better than anyone but I’ve been walking on eggshells trying not to make things worse and you come in here and in half an hour make everything better.”

“Simple. It’s not about knowing Dean, not right now. I see the way he looks at Cassie, has always looked at Cassie, and right now that’s the most important thing in the world to him. I know Cassie, and can use that to motivate Deano,” Gabriel half-shrugged.

Sam’s jaw dropped, “You’re right. It’s so simple I never thought of it. All those times watching Dean worry himself sick over Cas and I never thought of it.”

“He does this often then?” Gabriel asked surprised. I mean angels are so much more powerful than humans why would one worry over an angel so much. 

Sam grinned, “You have no idea. He’s like an overprotective mother. If Cas doesn’t stop by for a while he starts pacing like a caged animal and watching the sky like he will see Cas flying down. Forget the fact that most of the time all he would have to do is call and Cas would be right there…He doesn’t want to bother Cas so he just bothers me instead with his incessant worrying.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but laugh, “And knowing Cassie he does the same thing. He’s always been a huge worrier and given his protectiveness of your brother and Deano’s job I’m sure Cassie spends more time fretting than not.”

“They really are a pair aren’t they?” Sam asked as they both fell into helpless laughter. 

“Maybe we should just glue them together and be done with it?”

Sam was laughing at the joke before he realized that this was Gabriel he was talking to so it wasn’t necessarily a joke. Sam still snickering but able to talk said, “Yeah…no. Don’t even think about it.”

“Well not right now obviously. That would be rather counterproductive.”

“Not ever.”

“Not unless it’s necessary.”

“Only if I agree that it’s necessary.”

“Fine. Take away all my fun.” Seeing Gabriel’s pout set off Sam’s laughter again, just as Dean came in still running a towel through his hair. 

Dean looked from one to the other and gave a long suffering sigh, “Do I want to know?”

“Probably not Deano.” Gabriel said fighting his own laughter. 

After a few minutes of watching Dean and Sam trying to have a silent conversation that was quickly turning into a silent argument, which would have been hilarious if Gabriel wasn’t aware that it was about him the archangel stood up and announced, “Well I have a few things to do, errands to run, you know, I’ll be back later or pray to me if you need me,” then he flew off.

Dean wasted no time interrogating his brother, “I stop paying attention for one day and suddenly you’re all buddy buddy with the trickster? What the hell?”

“He’s not all bad you know,” Sam defended him.

“Well of course he’s not. He did help us get Cas back, and saved us at that hotel a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean he’s all good either and he’s freaking annoying!” 

“Well of course he’s annoying, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a good guy deep down,” he ignored Dean’s muttered ‘very deep’ and continued, “But you didn’t see him last night Dean. He was just so….I don’t know….broken…lost…hurting…something”

“What do you mean? What was wrong with him? He seems fine now.” He knew by Sammy’s voice that it must have been bad and even for the trickster he couldn’t just ignore another being’s pain. 

“You were pretty out of it yourself last night. What do you remember after we left the prison with Cas?”

“Not much, walking mostly, then being back here…wait we were attacked weren’t we, while we were walking?”

“Yeah we were. It was before we got back to where Gabriel was, but we weren’t far. He was already in pretty bad shape from us killing so many of his brothers and sisters right there next to him, but then when we were attacked…well I took out one of them that attacked us but the other one had me dead to rights. You had your hands full with Cas, and I was on the ground about a second from being smote and I guess Gabriel heard you yell and jumped in all avenging angel and took out the one trying to kill me. He was just in complete shock afterward. And then to make matters worse just as he snapped out of it he saw Cas and I’m sure you remember what kind of shape he was in when we found him, and Gabriel said that his grace had been shredded which from the way he talked seems like it’s something unthinkable. I don’t know how he managed to get us back here and get everyone up there back where they needed to be before he made it back here and fell apart. He’s trying to put on a good show for us now though.”

“Wow…I don’t…I mean…you think he’s just putting on a show now? What the hell happened when we got back here?”

“Yeah he’s putting on a show. Oh he’s better than he was by far, but he’s playing it up a bit. I’ve seen behind the mask now. I know the difference. As far as what happened last night, a little crying, a little yelling, a couple arguments, and a lot of pie and cake.”

“Arguments? He wasn’t blaming you for…you know…”

“No, though he was frustrated that he couldn’t even blame me since we were just trying to save his brother, no the argument was about, and I quote, ‘I don’t need your pity. Forget that I saved your life ok? Just forget it. You don’t owe me anything so stop pretending you care. I know you don’t like me. I knew that before I even started this so save it for someone who might believe it’”

“Ah and now the buddy buddy makes sense. He tugged on your heartstrings just right.”

“Dean…” Sam said both wearily and warningly.

“No it’s ok Sammy. I get it. I would’ve worked on me too, and I can’t even say that he was trying to manipulate you since I don’t think he was. We are both suckers for the wounded puppies. Just try not to let it blind you if he starts being a dick is all I ask.”

Sam snorted, “Then you would be glad to know that I’ve already stopped him from pulling one prank just this morning.”

“That’s what I didn’t want to know?” Sam nodded. “Gotcha. Just keep an eye on it and I’ll trust your judgement, but that won’t stop me from going off if he pisses me off.”

“I wouldn’t think it would,” Sam rolled his eyes. 

“Wait you said a couple arguments?”

“The other one was about you needing something more substantial to eat than pie.”

“I think I’m on his side on that one. Sorry Sammy.”

“Of course you are”

“Bitch”

“Jerk”

 

About 30 mins later:  
“Hey Sammy, you think Gabriel was serious about having things to do or just trying to give us a chance to talk?”

“I don’t know,” Sam thought for a moment. “Hey Gabriel, if you’re not still busy we’re done talking about you now so you can come back.”

“How could you possibly have exhausted such a fascinating subject already?” Gabriel said appearing with a flourish. 

“There’s only so many four letter words available,” Dean shot back. 

Sam laughed and even Gabriel snorted in amusement and quipped, “That was almost clever of you Deano,” before Sam interjected and asked Gabriel what he was up to.

“I was actually checking in at Harvelles.”

“Harvelles? You mean the one up there?” Dean asked.

“Yeppers. I know I made a promise to Sam that everyone would be fine and I knew they would be, but I also knew that you would both feel better if I could tell you that I saw them all with my own two eyes and not a scratch on any of them. They also asked me a hundred questions about how you two were, so I reassured them too.” 

“That was almost nice of you Gabriel,” Dean quipped. 

“Wasn’t that risky going back up there?”

“Not really. When I went there the first time to get everything set up I warded the place against angelic eavesdropping. Only reason I can get in is because I’m an archangel so a bit stronger than the average warding covers and since I’m the last free archangel I figured there was no need for the stronger warding. I still shouldn’t do it often, given that I am in the open for a short time when I go, but it’s not long enough for them to identify me as long as I don’t go too much.”

“Thanks Gabe. We appreciate it, and we promise we’ll only ask you to go if we have no other choice.” 

“Well I will have to go back once more anyway so if you want to write any letters or anything to anyone you might want to start working on them.”

“Why do you have to go back again?” Dean asked.

“They want to know when Cassie wakes up and how he is. I promised I would let them know.”

“Oh…well…thanks” Dean stuttered out. Sam snorted. Figures. Dean can’t even bring himself to say thank you unless it’s about Cas. 

“Yeah yeah. I’m gonna go explore your delightful home a bit,” Gabriel said as he walked out. 

“Don’t break anything!” Dean yelled after him. “I’m gonna end up with ulcers having him around I hope you know.” Dean looked accusingly at Sam. 

“Well at least he can heal them if you do.” Dean shot his brother a betrayed look. 

 

After a few hours of silence coming from outside the room Dean began to worry about what Gabriel was getting into. He would have found it amusing if he had known that his thoughts were shared by the parent of every toddler on the planet. He went looking for the archangel and found him in the library just staring at the wall looking lost. He found himself just as disconcerted as Sam had the night before. That look just wasn’t right on Gabriel. It was like the universe was upside down. So Dean did the only thing he could do when faced with an uncomfortable situation that might lead to deep discussion. He retreated back to his room where he could pretend that it never happened, but he secretly understood Sammy’s attachment now. And when Gabriel came waltzing in an hour later with a tray of bacon cheeseburgers and fries for Dean, Chicken Salad for Sammy, and a large slice of Chocolate cake for himself, making jokes and acting for all the world like the happiest being in existence…well…Dean wasn’t going to call him on it. 

 

Late that night, everyone was asleep except Gabriel who kept silent watch over his injured brother and, though he would deny it if anyone asked, using a tiny tendril of grace to soothe Dean’s nightmares when he got restless. Suddenly there was movement from the bed in front of him. Just a tensing of muscles and twitch of his head. Gabriel conjured up a long pole and poked Dean to wake him up. “What the…”

Gabriel nodded towards Cas, “Something’s happening, I’ll go get Sam…” but that was unnecessary as he was woken anyway by the bloodcurdling scream that tore from the injured angel.


	7. Chapter 7

Sam barreled into Dean’s room at a full sprint only to find both his brother and the archangel panicking. Gabriel he could understand. He couldn’t imagine that Gabriel had ever been in a situation remotely like this one, but Dean should really know better. But of course, it was Cas that was laying there sounding like a tortured animal with that never ending scream that had to be destroying his throat and Dean was never reasonable about Cas. 

Gabriel was standing over his brother with glowing hands yelling about how it wasn’t working, he couldn’t heal anything, and Dean was threatening violence and archangel flambé if he didn’t do something. “SHUT UP!” Sam yelled. “You’re both panicking like little girls. Dean sit down and shut up. Gabriel take a deep breath and think.”

“I can’t heal this…I don’t…”

“Ok. What about just stopping the pain? Block his pain receptors? Make him numb? Something…” Sam asked desperately. He wasn’t exactly handling Cas’ pain much better than the other two after all.

“Of course,” Gabriel said as he reached out and touched two fingers to Cas’ forehead and he immediately stopped screaming and relaxed.

“What did you do?” Dean asked suspiciously.

“I put him back under. His consciousness surfaced just enough to be able to feel the pain, so I just knocked it back down. That will last for about a day, but given the damage and the rate that it’s healing I’ll probably need to do that at least one more time.”

Dean wasn’t sure if he should be grateful that Cas wasn’t hurting like that anymore or angry at Gabriel for putting him into a coma again, but now that he was calmer he realized that Gabriel had been just as worried about Cas as he was so decided to give the guy a pass for now and be happy that Cas wasn’t hurting anymore. 

Gabriel sighed in relief and almost fell back into his chair. “You two can go back to sleep if you want…” he trailed off seeing the murderous look on Dean’s face and the incredulous one on Sam’s, “…or not.”

A few minutes of silence later Gabriel reached out and put one hand in Cas’ and ran the other through his hair with a fond look on his face until he remembered that the Winchesters were there too, he noticed the unreadable looks on their faces and stood up quickly. “Well since you kids seem to have this covered I’m going to go find something to do,” and he walked quickly out of the room.

Dean looked at Sam incredulously. “It’s almost like he’s embarrassed to be seen not being a dick”

Sam laughed at the irony. Dean may take a different route to being a dick, but he had the same defense mechanism, and Sam knew it would be a waste of time explaining it. That got Sam thinking about the ways his brother and the trickster were similar and he realized that Gabriel was probably as much at a loss without something to do as Dean was so he went looking for him.

He found him in what was becoming his seat in the library, staring at the wall. Sam thought for a moment before he remembered those Enochian manuscripts that Cas had said was a terrible translation, but hadn’t yet had the time to help them fix. They might get lucky and find something in there to help Cas, though it was doubtful, but if he could get Gabriel focused on it, then it would give him something to do to feel useful. 

“Hey Gabe, while you’re here I was wondering if I could get your opinion on something.” Sam said.

Gabriel looked up and relaxed into his normal pose with his normal smirk on his face. “If it’s about the best way to pull the stick from Deano’s rear I have more than a few opinions,” he joked. 

“Yeah…no,” Sam said shaking his head. “It dawned on me that we have all this information about angels that were gathered by the men of letters over the course of hundreds of years, now I know that it’s unlikely that there will be anything that you don’t know, but it’s possible that we could find something that will help Cas. The only problem is that, according to Cas, the translations are awful so we can’t make any sense of it.”

“Translations? You want me to do translations? Do I look like a secretary to you?” Gabriel asked in disbelief while pulling one of the manuscripts over to him anyway. “Wow this really is awful….This makes no sense…That’s not even a word!...ok now they are just making things up,” Gabriel ripped off the pages that were supposed to be in English and threw them away. When Sam started to protest Gabriel said a little annoyed, “I’m not even going to bother trying to fix that garbage. It is much easier just to start over,” and he snapped a pen and notebook into existence and began to write muttering under his breath about stupid idiots who pretend to know Enochian and the injustice of him becoming a secretary and who only knew what else, because Sam of course had made his escape already. He wasn’t going to risk distracting Gabriel once he was actually involved in a useful task. 

When he got back to Dean’s room his brother looked up, “We really should childproof this place if Gabriel is going to stay,” Dean joked, “What’s the overgrown child doing anyway?”

Sam gave a smug smile, “He is working on the Enochian translations,”

Dean looked at him in shock, “How’d you manage that? Are you sure he’s not just translating them into dirty limericks or something?” Dean asked suspicious. 

“I don’t think he’s thought of that yet, but even if he messes it up, we can always ask Cas to help fix it later. It’s not like I gave him the originals, and for now it keeps him busy. I think he’s just hoping there will be some obscure reference in there that will help Cas.”

“Good job Sammy, never thought I’d see the day when the trickster cared about something other than himself.”

Sam realized he would need to nip this in the bud if he ever wanted any chance of peace with Gabriel around. “He’s always cared, he just shows it in pretty shitty ways.”

“He killed me how many times?...”

“To teach me to let go so that I would go all vengeance and let Lucifer out.”

“Trapped us in TV land to get us to say yes to those douchebags…”

“Because he wanted to get it over with before more damage was done”

“Left us alone to put Lucifer back in the cage…”

“Because we wouldn’t have tried to force him to do something if we had thought there was another way? Besides you’ve seen yourself how he tried to hide being nice and he has obviously been keeping tabs on us. For all we know he was helping us all along and we just didn’t know it.”

“You don’t really believe that do you Sammy?” 

“I don’t know what to believe when it comes to Gabriel anymore.” Dean snorted. He could agree with that. The last 24 hours had been an eye-opener for sure. Didn’t make the archangel any less annoying though. 

Sam went back to bed not long after that, but Dean wouldn’t go back to sleep for anything. He knew that even if he did his nightmares would be filled with Cas’ screams. 

 

For the rest of that day the only sign they saw of Gabriel was when they looked in on him only to see him working over the manuscripts making disparaging remarks about men of letters, Winchesters, his father, and anything else that he could think of that even remotely led to this predicament. Sam thought about making him take a break, but decided that it would be better to leave him be. Who knew if they would ever get him to sit still that long again? Might as well take advantage of it while they could. They would need to interrupt him to have him watch Cas in a few hours anyway. 

When Dean and Sam were both ready to go to sleep they pulled Gabriel away from the manuscripts. “How are they coming? Anything important yet?” Sam asked.

“Plenty of important things for you. I don’t know how these people ever managed to get references straight from father’s private library, but nothing that will help Cassie.”

“Then there’s nothing important right now then. We can worry about the rest later.” Dean huffed. He knew it was a long shot but he was hoping.

Sam, however, caught something else in what Gabriel said, “Your father’s private library? How is that possible?” his eyes were lit up like it was Christmas morning. 

“I don’t know how that’s possible unless father has been closer than we thought. They only ones who can access it are him and the archangels. Michael and Raphael never left heaven, Lucifer was in the cage and would rather have died than help humans anyway, and I know I didn’t do anything with it. Hell I barely read anything when I was there every day much less sneaking around with it.”

“We have God’s private library,” Sam said awestruck.

“Breathe Samsquatch. You don’t have that much of it. Just a couple of the more boring reference books. Sort of an ‘Angels for Dummies’ type thing. Maybe he knew we would need it.”

“So he knew but once again he’s leaving us to clean up the mess? Why am I not surprised?” Dean said derisively and stormed off. 

Sam looked at Gabriel as if waiting for a response but all he got was, “What? I can’t exactly argue with him.” And Gabriel shrugged and sat down next to his little brother as Sam went off to bed. 

Dean stormed in a little while later, glared and Gabriel and said “Not a word” as he fell into bed.

It was nearly dawn when Gabriel sensed Castiel’s consciousness beginning to rise again and after a quick diagnostic of his grace Gabriel knew that this wakening would be no different from the last one so he immediately put his brother back under. The last thing any of them needed was to witness that again. It was already haunting the nightmares of both Winchesters, Dean more so than Sam, thankfully for Gabriel, since Dean was in the room and easier to soothe. Of course, Gabriel couldn’t figure out how he was able to monitor Sam from a few rooms down anyway. It shouldn’t have been possible, but he wasn’t going to question his blessings. Cranky Winchesters were no fun, hence his hiding in the library all day yesterday. It’s not like he could bring himself to leave after the way Cassie woke up. 

 

Once the Winchesters were awake and fed and Dean was back at Cassie’s side, Gabriel hit the library again. Now that he knew there were some of his father’s books, he was a bit more hopeful that they would find something that would help his little brother and if he wrote it out in English as he read…well…it’s not like it slowed him down at all. 

They still couldn’t pry Dean away from Cas’ side for more than a few minutes at a time, but Sam was in and out this time, making conversation about what he was reading and looking over the translations that Gabriel had finished. Sam had to force himself not to be impressed at Gabriel’s writing speed. He was an angel after all. 

Suddenly Gabriel sat up straight and began reading with intensity and the pen dropped from his fingers. Sam’s head snapped to him waiting for some explanation and when Gabriel fluttered out of the room a few minutes later, Sam sprinted down the hall to Dean’s room hoping that’s where he was. He skidded into the doorway just in time to hear Gabriel say, “I might have something that can help.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Might?” Dean asked trying not to get his hopes up.

“I need to get another look at what we are dealing with first,” Gabriel said as he did a quick diagnostic of Cas’ grace before he said, “Ok so I can help but there are some side-affects.”

“How can you help? And what side affects?” Sam asked.

“Well one of the books from father’s library talks about a procedure to…I’m trying to think how to explain it…ok so think of his grace as a deep cut. I can use my grace as thread to sort of sew it back together. Cassie will heal much quicker, and even be stronger, with a bit of archangel grace in him.”

“It will make him an archangel?!” Dean said not sure how he felt about that idea.

“No. He will be stronger than a seraph, but not as strong as an archangel. Sort of like a hybrid. Usually this procedure would be done between to angels of the same rank, but since I don’t have any seraphs lying around and even if we could get one, they would never do this.”

Sam got the feeling that he meant more than just that they wouldn’t want to help him. “What aren’t you telling us Gabriel?” he said warningly. 

Gabriel sighed. He didn’t want to tell Sam this part. The kid was too soft-hearted for his own good. “It will be very painful for me and if I lose myself in the pain, there is a chance I can end up in the same position as Cassie here.”

“No. Then we find another way. You said Cas is healing, it is just taking time. We can give him that time.”

“I’m not asking you to make the decision for me. I’m perfectly conscious and able to make my own choices thanks, but you need to decide for Cas since he can’t decide for himself. Or should I say Deano needs to decide for Cas.”

Dean looked conflicted. “Is there anything that can be done to minimize the risk for you?”

“Sam can try to keep me grounded. If I start to drift he might be able to pull me back,” Gabriel shrugged.

“Dean, you can’t seriously be considering…” Gabriel snapped his fingers and Sam’s mouth was moving but no sound was coming out and he was stuck in his chair. 

“Worst case, what happens to Cas?” 

“He is no worse than he is now, and depending on how far I get before I’m lost, quite a bit better.” At Dean’s raised eyebrow he realized he was going to have to lay it all out. “Ok think of it as me removing my own kidney. If I can keep the pain in check I can do it slowly and carefully without causing any extra damage, but if I lose control and just rip it out I’m in pretty bad shape, but Cassie, he either gets the kidney or he doesn’t and the kidney is either in perfect condition or a little bruised. Either way it can’t make it any worse for him.”

Dean looked at Gabriel with something approaching respect, “I can’t ask you to do this Gabriel,” he said softly. 

“You’re not asking me. I’m asking you to let me do this,” Gabriel said looking Dean straight in the eye. 

Dean finally nodded slowly so Gabriel snapped his fingers releasing Sam, but before Sam can speak Gabriel looks at him sternly. “I’m doing this, no matter what. All I need to know is if you’ll help me.”

“Why don’t you get Dean to help you since he seems to be the one willing to let you do this to yourself,” Sam spat heatedly at the both of the conscious occupants of the room. 

Gabriel wasn’t about to tell Sam that Dean couldn’t help him, because then he would ask why, and he would have to tell him how Sam’s soul and Gabriel’s grace seemed to be acting like magnets and they would want an explanation that he didn’t have and they would be back to being suspicious and angry with him thinking that he had done something or was hiding something so he said the only thing he could think of. “I need Dean monitoring Cas. He will have his hands full with that part.”

Sam glared between Dean and Gabriel wanting one of them to relent. To say that they wouldn’t do this. That torturing one to fix another was wrong. Finally Dean spoke but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “It’s his choice Sammy.”

Sam huffed, “Fine what do you need me to do?” 

Gabriel nodded relieved, “Ok when I start my hands will be glowing but not too brightly. If that glow increases noticeably I need you to put your hands on my shoulders and push feelings of calm and comfort towards me.” At Sam’s completely baffled look Gabriel sighed. “Ok come here Samsquatch. Hands on my shoulders. Yeah like that. Now think of something that makes you calm and happy and once you’re calm and happy kind of push that feeling at me in your mind. I said push not nudge. There you go. Just like that.”

“And if I don’t know if I can possibly feel calm and happy knowing that someone is in agony? What then?”

“Then do the best you can. Even if you’re only slightly calm that will help at least a little.”

“Ok so what do I need to do?” asked Dean. 

Gabriel had to think fast to come up with a job for Dean. “Ok Dean I need you to put a hand on his forehead and another on his stomach. We will need to take off his coat and shirt first though.” Seeing Dean’s discomfort with the idea of undressing his unconscious friend Gabriel just snapped his fingers and Cas’ upper body was bare and the removed clothing was folded neatly on top of the dresser. When Dean was in position he looked to Gabriel for further instruction. “I won’t be able to see what is happening to his body, only his grace, so if he starts seizing or anything you will have to push me away and roll him over. The first sign will be his stomach muscles tightening or his head twitching. ” Gabriel didn’t think there was any chance of something like that happening, but it was a valid enough excuse and gave Dean something to do other than just watch, because even Gabriel knew that Dean couldn’t just watch without going crazy. 

Gabriel looked at each of them and said, “We ready?” 

“How long is this going to take?” Sam asked nervous.

Gabriel shrugged, “An hour, maybe two, but shouldn’t be more than that. I will at least take a break if it takes longer than that.”

Gabriel silenced himself; they didn’t need to hear his screams, even if the silencing would likely break before he was finished; and began. He put his hands on his brother’s chest and began to unravel his own grace as the silent scream was ripped from his lips. It only took Dean a moment to realize that he silenced himself and Dean was thankful for that. He forced his eyes away. If he didn’t have to see it or hear it, he could pretend it wasn’t happening. Sam thankfully was behind Gabriel so the only clue he had was the tension of the archangel’s body. 

The first time the glow in Gabriel’s hands started to get too bright Sam stepped forward and saw Gabriel’s face and froze. Dean barked, “Sam!” and snapped him out of it and Sam did his job, only he didn’t stop. He kept it up for the remainder of the time, only faltering when the silencing broke just after the one hour mark and a scream nearly as chilling as the one they heard from Castiel when he first woke echoed through the room. Sam screwed his eyes closed and tried to concentrate on peace and comfort despite the tears falling down his face. Dean pretended not to notice his brother’s tears. He also pretended not to notice his own. 

It was only another ten minutes after the silencing broke, though it felt like hours to the Winchesters, before the screams turned to whimpers and Gabriel staggered backwards. Sam braced him against him with an arm across the smaller man’s chest as Gabriel wrapped his arms around his stomach like he was trying to hold himself together. Sam helped him over to the bed Dean had been using and helped him to lie down. As soon as he was lying down Gabriel turned on his side and curled up in the fetal position. 

“Gabe?” Sam said putting a tentative hand on the archangel’s shoulder.

“I’m ok,” he gasped. “I just need to rest. Cassie should be awake soon.” That was the last thing he said before he lost consciousness. 

Sam turned to glare at Dean who looked completely horrified as he wiped the tears from his face. He realized that it finally dawned on Dean what he allowed to happen and was now feeling the crushing guilt. Sam couldn’t help the vindictive thought that he deserved it. Maybe tomorrow he would try to make his brother feel better, but for now they had a second unconscious angel to care for and it was Dean’s fault. 

It was about an hour later before Dean’s cry of, “Cas!” echoed through the room. 

Sam rushed over to the other bed just as Cas opened his eyes. “Dean…What happened?” He looked down confused, “where are my clothes?”


	9. Chapter 9

“Cas, I’m so sorry. If we had known they had you we would have gotten you out sooner. How you feeling buddy?” 

“I feel…strange. What’s going on?” Cas asked as he sat up slowly and gingerly, only the tension on his face betraying the pain he was still in. 

“Short version. Gabriel’s alive and got us into heaven so we could rescue you and we brought you back here, but you wouldn’t wake up so Gabriel fixed your grace.”

“Fixed my grace? But how? It was in pieces. You can’t fix another angel’s grace.”

Sam, still in a bit of a snit about what Dean let Gabriel do, but not letting himself take it out on Cas decided to take over the explanation, “Gabriel found a reference to a procedure that allowed him to basically use his own grace to sew yours back together again. He said you would be a little stronger because you would have a bit of archangel grace.”

“He used his own grace? That would have been exceedingly painful.” Sam nodded and looked away, his eyes landing on Gabriel’s unconscious body that even in rest was curled up and tense with pain. Castiel followed his gaze and gasped. “Gabriel did that? For me?”

They didn’t know if Cas was more surprised that it was Gabriel that did such a selfless act or that it was for Castiel’s benefit who never thought he was worth it, or maybe it was a combination of both. That lasted for a minute or two before Cas turned back to look at them again. “And you LET him!?”

Dean started to get worried that there was something he didn’t know about what Gabriel had done. “Why? What’s wrong? Is something messed up?” He asked looking over Cas as if to find some invisible injury. 

“What’s wrong? Oh only that my brother essentially traded my pain for his and is now suffering because of me.” 

Dean gulped and said weakly, “It was his idea and his choice.”

He didn’t get any farther before Cas glared at him, “And you would let Sam make that choice? That sacrifice for you?”

Those words finally got through to Sam. He now realized that he was being petulant about the whole thing. It was Gabriel’s choice and he would have made the same one if that had been Dean laying on that bed, so he spoke up. “No he wouldn’t have, but I would have done it anyway because he’s my brother and he would do the same for me. Has done the same for me. So yes, as much as I don’t like it and argued against it, it was Gabriel’s choice.”

Cas visibly deflated. He would take it up with his brother when he was feeling better, but wouldn’t blame Sam and Dean anymore. “I…I am still very weak. I am going to rest some more.” Cas said as he laid back down. 

“Ok Cas, we’ll be right here if you need anything.” 

“So you will watch me sleep? Is that not ‘creepy’”

Sam let out a loud laugh waiting to see how Dean would get out of this one, but apparently he was expecting it and had a retort ready. “Not when you’re sick or injured,” as he let out a small laugh too. 

Cas smiled and closed his eyes. The atmosphere in the room was far lighter after that while waiting for the two angels to wake. At least now they knew that they would both recover and wasn’t that just its own miracle. 

 

Cas woke again a few hours later and decided he needed to take a walk. His muscles were very stiff. Dean helped him stand though he still moved very gingerly. Dean hovered beside him ready to catch him if he wavered. Dean looked back at Sam to see if he needed anything. 

“You two go ahead. I’ll stay with Gabe.”

Dean nodded and led Cas out of the bedroom that they had both been holed up in for days. Not that he would admit it but Dean was glad to be out of that room for more than a few minutes at a time. 

“I can’t help but feel that I’ve missed quite a bit. How did my brother and yours bond?”

“Ok I guess it’s time for the long version of the story huh?” Dean said as he proceeded to explain everything that had happened since they found out about Cas’ imprisonment. 

“I always knew there was more to Gabriel than met the eye, but I never realized he was so sensitive and emotional,” Cas said in wonderment. 

Dean snorted, “Sensitive and emotional? Gabriel?”

Cas looked at Dean confused, “Yes. Do you not see? He left his family so that he wouldn’t see them hurt each other and surrounded himself with strangers so he wouldn’t have to care, until he was dragged back in.”

“I…huh…wow…I never thought of it that way.” Dean still thought that Gabriel could do with a little more compassion for strangers, but at least he was beginning to understand why he was such a dick. Baby steps. 

Cas was starting to falter in his steps so Dean decided to take them back to the bedroom. They reached outside the door only to hear voices coming from inside. When they heard Gabriel say, “Because Cassie is the best of all of us,” Dean couldn’t help but stop to listen and he motioned Cas to be quiet too. 

 

While Dean and Cas were out Gabriel started to stir. He eyes opened and he looked around frantically until he saw Sam and remembered what happened. He sat slowly wincing at the remaining pain. “How are you feeling?” Sam asked softly. 

“Hunky Dorey. How’s Cassie?” He asked noticing that the other bed in the room was empty. 

“Still pretty sore, like you, but he’s up and around…with help at least.”

“Good. I’m glad it worked.”

“I still don’t understand why you did it though. I mean if it was about saving his life that would be one thing, but it was just about shortening his recovery time…”

“It was about more than that. It would have taken weeks before he could wake any differently than he did the first time, and you know that once he was actually awake neither he nor Dean would let me put him back out no matter how much pain he was in. It would have taken months to get to the point he is now, able to move and walk around. I didn’t just shorten his recovery time. I saved him months of agony.”

Sam could understand that, but it seemed like Gabriel had latched onto Cas to the exclusion of all of the rest of his family. “I can understand that, but why Cas?”

“Because Cassie is the best of all us.” At Sam’s questioning look he continued. “Free will and emotions go hand in hand, and angels weren’t made with such things, but we can develop them. When Lucifer found emotion he was twisted by it, most angels fell essentially killing themselves since they couldn’t remember who or what they were after they were reborn human, I ran away, but none of those options ever occurred to Cassie. He wanted to use it to help the rest of our family. Sure they twisted his words and made a huge mess of things, but he tried. He gave up everything and fought like mad to help them find this gift, when the rest of us just ran away. He’s more special than all of us put together they nearly destroyed them for it, and he doesn’t deserve to live with that pain.”

Sam heard what Gabriel didn’t say. That if he hadn’t run away he could have protected him, prevented all the chaos and Sam knew where those thoughts led, but the door opened before he could offer his reassurance, but he put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze hoping that the nonverbal reassurance would do for now.

 

Dean watched Cas’ reactions to his brother’s words. It was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. Cas couldn’t put words to what he was feeling in that moment. He was still rather new to emotions. Perhaps one day, when knowing that he was overheard wouldn’t embarrass his older brother he could ask him to explain. He had much more experience figuring these things out after all. 

Dean put a hand on Cas’ shoulder and whispered, “He’s right you know. You’re better than all of them,” and grinned at his friend as they walked into the room pretending they didn’t overhear anything, and he helped Cas to lay back down on the bed. 

 

“You kiddos should go get some sleep we are recovered enough that we don’t need you hovering anymore.”

Dean looked to Cas for confirmation and at his nod he said, mainly to Cas, but not minding so much at the moment if Gabriel takes him up on it too, “If you need anything…” he left the sentence hanging, and so Gabriel took the opportunity to snap his fingers and create a pair of air horns. One each for him and Cas. Dean sighed resignedly, “Ok that. Good night Cas. He looked over at Gabriel, night dickhead.” And ducked out of the room before anyone could respond, but still got an airhorn in response. He looked to his brother and said, “Ulcers Sammy. Ulcers.” Sam just laughed and shook his head as Dean made his way to the guest room.


End file.
